In All Such Cases
by Vampire-Badger
Summary: Modern Day AU. New college, new friends, new start. Things are finally looking up for Desmond, and- well okay, yea. So his roommate's not that great, his dad's still on his case, and all that time traveling, alternate dimension, secret organizations fighting for world domination stuff? That part's pretty weird.
1. Move In

"What if my roommate's a dick?"

"I really think you have bigger things to worry about than that."

Desmond rolled his eyes and slouched down in the crowded backseat of his dad's car. "Wow, thanks dad. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," said his mother, shooting William a shut-up-before-you-say-something-even-more-stupid look. "You talked to him, right? What was his name, Sam?"

"Shaun," Desmond corrected. "And yea, we talked on the phone."

"And?" his mother prompted.

"He sounded like a dick."

William snorted, apparently involuntarily, then swore as a car outside honked and swerved past within inches of the Miles' car. Desmond caught a glimpse of a sleek black car with dark windows before William jerked the wheel to avoid a collision, and the car vanished into traffic.

"Dad!" Desmond protested as a box of his stuff split open, spilling its contents all over the seat.

"I told you to use packing tape." William was not exactly an understanding father at the best of times, and struggling against move in day traffic to take his freshman son down for his first year of college had apparently not improved his temper any.

"Turn up here," Desmond's mom interrupted, and William made a sharp left onto a crowded street filled by cars and traffic cones. Signs on the side of the street directed cars into specific lanes depending which dorm they were headed to, while strongly advising local traffic to find another way around.

"Which dorm are you in?" William asked.

"Florida Avenue Residence."

William nodded, and after much cursing and a slightly dented fender, William managed to squeeze the car into the correct lane. After that it was just a matter of sitting in traffic. A lot of traffic. "Is this dorm even on campus?" William grumbled after several blocks.

Desmond shrugged. "They call it FAR for a reason."

-/-

"Are you sure you don't need help unpacking?" his mom asked, when they had finally reached the dorm and loaded Desmond's boxes onto a cart.

"He said he'd be fine," William looked relieved at getting out early- they had a several state long drive ahead of them, even with his dad's it's-not-speeding-if-you're-in-a-hurry approach to speed limits.

"Alright," his mother said reluctantly, and hugged Desmond (the third time since getting out of the car). "Call me if you need to, alright?"

"Mom, I'm fine," he complained, but returned the hug anyway. Now that his parents were actually leaving, he found that he wasn't really sure he was ready.

Someone honked loudly, and Desmond hastily pulled away from his mom. The car behind the Miles's (a beat up junker that looked like it had seen better decades, looking like it was held together by duck tape and hope) idled impatiently. The front passenger window rolled down, and a guy with dark hair pulled back into a short ponytail leaned out of it. "You guys still using that spot?"

"No," said William. "All yours." He got into the car and, after yet another hug ("Mom!" Desmond protested) drove away, leaving Desmond alone. He didn't realize he was just standing there, staring after the departing car, until the kid from the other car started dumping his stuff into a cart next to Desmond's.

"Are you the oldest?" he asked.

"What?"

"In your family," the kid repeated. "Are you the oldest sibling?"

"Oh, yea," said Desmond. "Only child, actually."

"That sucks," the kid said cheerfully. "My mom got all the huggy crying stuff out of their systems when Fredrico started here." He jabbed his thumb back over his shoulder at a guy that was clearly his brother, busily unloading his own boxes. "And I have a brother and sister still at home, so... oh! I'm Ezio, by the way."

"Desmond."

"What floor are you on?" Ezio asked.

"Ten," said Desmond glumly.

"I'm on eight," said Ezio. "What are you majoring in?"

"I'm undecided."

"My dad pretty much insisted I do econ." Ezio made a face that made his feelings clear. "He's a banker. I don't like it much but I don't really know what I want to do, so-"

"Ezio! You coming?" Ezio's brother called.

"Yea!" he waved at Desmond as he left. "See you around?"

"Sure." Fredrico and Ezio went inside, Ezio still chattering away. Desmond would have followed, but as soon as he moved his cart, half his crap fell off and he had to stack it back up. When everything was finally settled, Desmond glanced up. He noticed idly that the same black car that had nearly run into his dad's earlier. It was parked at the curb on the other side of the street, and Desmond idly watched as a guy his own age and an older man that looked like the kid's dad unloaded. They seemed to be carefully ignoring each other. Then he shrugged and went inside.

-/-

The dorm room was empty when Desmond finally reached it, which was a relief. He wasn't in the mood for a conversation with his roommate at the moment. He started unpacking- clothes went into drawers or the closet, books were piled on the desk, anything he couldn't find a place for got shoved under the bed.

He was halfway done when his phone beeped. He picked it up and was surprised to see the text wasn't from his mom, checking in already, but from Lucy. His girlfriend of nine months was in the class below him, and had started her senior year the previous Monday.

He didn't feel like texting, so he called her to talk while they unpacked. "Hey Lucy."

"Desmond! You got in okay?"

"Yea." he shrugged, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "My parents just left. How's school?"

"How do you think?"

"Boring."

"Yep. How's college?"

"I think my dorm's in Indiana," said Desmond. "Seriously, I'm right on the edge of campus. I'm going to have to take a bus if I want to get to class."

"That sucks."

"Oh, hey- Lucy, I gotta go." The door had opened, and a scrawny blonde guy stood there, studying Desmond intently as he hung up the phone.

"Hey," said Desmond, a little uncomfortably. "You Shaun?"

"Yea. You're Desmond?"

Desmond nodded.

Silence fell, and before Desmond could think of something to say, Shaun asked, "Do you need any help unpacking?" His tone made it clear that he hoped the answer was no.

"I'm pretty much done."

"Oh." Shaun glanced around the room. "So you're just going to leave that stuff all over the floor?"

"I was planning to..." he glanced over at Shaun's carefully organized side of the room. "But I guess I could-"

"Well, you don't have to."

Desmond felt himself start to get angry. "You obviously want me to."

"It's your mess. I'm not your mother."

"Thank God." Great. Thirty seconds of conversation were all he needed to know that he'd been right all along- Shaun was not only a dick but also an asshole, plus whatever words they used to insult people in England (and on that note, his British accent was prissy and obnoxious).

They glared at each other, then Desmond grabbed his keys and stormed out before he could say this out loud, or any of the other things that had suddenly popped into his mind, most of which would probably get him punched in the face. Not that he couldn't take Shaun, if it came to it, he told himself as he headed for the elevators. Obviously.

"Goddamn stuck up roommate," he muttered when he finally made it out of the dorm and away from the crowd of new move ins. The back side of the building offered an uninspiring view of what looked like a practice soccer field, and was completely deserted. Perfect. He continued his mumbled complaints until he ran out of the creativity to come up with more. After that, he just stared out absentmindedly and thought about how he'd picked this school mostly because it was hundreds of miles away from home. Now that he'd left, he wasn't sure it had been a good idea.

**So. One Important Note about this story and a couple of unimportant ones. **

**The Important Note is that this starts off as a fairly relaxed pace slice of life kind of thing, but apparently I'm literally unable to write stories that don't involve multiple universes and time travel so things get a little crazy later.**

**Unimportant Note 1- The school where this takes place is University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Mostly because that's the school I go to and I figured I could either pretend it's a random school while pretty much basing it off UIUC because I don't have any other experience with colleges, or I could just bite the bullet and put the story there. No bearing on the story just a fact.**

**Unimportant Note 2- I've been working on this since mid June-ish, and I have fifty three pages of handwritten story, so *hopefully* updates should come pretty fast. But I'm leaving for school two weeks from yesterday, so... no promises.**


	2. Quad Day

"Hey! Desmond!"

Two days after move in, Desmond and Shaun had yet to have a single civil conversation, and that had only made Desmond upset enough to keep him from making any other friends. Mostly he just wandered around campus, got himself lost, and sent Lucy long, complaint filled texts. So he was surprised to hear someone calling his name during breakfast, apparently happy to see him.

He glanced around and spotted the guy he'd talked to at move in. "Ezio, right?" he asked as the kid dropped into a seat across the table from him. He had an enormous bowl of what looked like fruit loops.

"Yep." He grinned. "You look tired."

"I think my roommate's going to kill me in my sleep," Desmond complained. "Or at least make sarcastic comments."

"He wants to kill you already?" Ezio asked. "It's been like two days, what'd you do?"

Desmond shrugged, then glanced at Ezio's bowl. "We've just been fighting since we met. Are you seriously going to eat all that cereal?"

"It's my second bowl," he admitted. "What are you arguing about?"

"Basically everything," Desmond complained. "It's annoying. Plus, he's majoring in history. Who does that?"

"...historians?"

"Yea, okay, but-"

"History teachers."

"Well yea-"

"Museum curators!"

"The point is," Desmond said loudly, before Ezio could say anything else. "History is like the most pointless major ever."

"Oh, sure."

"Seriously," said Desmond. "I mean, there's never going to be a point in my life where I'm like 'hey, I wish I knew more about... I don't know, the revolutionary war, or something." He winced. "Sorry, I'm kind of whining at you."

Ezio shrugged. "At least he's interesting. I heard all these horror stories from my brother about terrible roommate's but mine's pretty okay."

"You sound disappointed."

"Meh."

"I think you sound lucky," said Desmond glumly. He realized he was dragging the conversation down, and quickly tried to think of something else to talk about. "Are you going to quad day?"

Ezio nodded. Quad day was an event the school held every year just before classes started- close to a thousand student clubs and sports set up tables in the quad and tried their best to recruit anyone that happened to walk by. "I heard there's free food," he volunteered. "Are you going?"

"I don't really have anything better to do," he said.

"Want to go together?" Ezio asked. "I'm going with my roommate but three's better than two."

"Sure," said Desmond, and after settling on a time and place, Ezio went off somewhere, possibly for more cereal. Desmond pulled his laptop out of his bag and started messing around with it. Two of his professors had already sent out emails, and one had assigned homework. It was pretty awful.

Before long, he found his eyes wandering around the cafeteria, desperately searching for something to distract him from the assignment. Eventually, his gaze focused on a guy in a brown T-shirt on the other side of the room. He thought it looked like the kid from the black car he'd seen at move in.

he didn't really mean to stare, it was just that the other option at the moment was looking at his homework again. He didn't look away until the kid suddenly looked at him and frowned, and Desmond realized he'd been caught staring. The kid frowned, and started to walk over to Desmond's table. He stopped just short and asked, in a voice that sounded more tired than confrontational, "What do you want?"

"Nothing," Desmond said quickly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare, I just-"

"Are you working for my dad?"

"What?" Desmond shook his head. "Look, I don't even know who you are."

"Oh." He let out a sigh of relief. "Sorry, it's just- my dad is one of those helicopter parents and I already know of at least one guy from my high school he's paying to keep tabs on me."

"Is he just really overprotective, or..?"

"No, I think he might be a little crazy," the guy answered, face impassive. Desmond honestly couldn't tell if he was joking.

"Well that's... weird." There were a lot of adjectives that described the kind of parent that hired other students to spy on their child, but weird pretty much covered them all.

"Yea. Could be worse."

"I don't think I want to know," Desmond said. He hesitated, then decided that even another fight with Shaun was looking more attractive than staying in the caf. "I should get going."

"Oh. Sure."

"Nice meeting you."

"Yea. Name's Connor."

"Desmond." He stood and stuffed his laptop back into his bag. "See you around."

-/-

Luckily, Shaun was out, and Desmond spent a refreshing couple of hours talking to Lucy and otherwise killing time. It was easily the least stressful few hours he'd had since getting to Illinois.

When he met up with Ezio at the prearranged time and place, it was obvious his friend hadn't had quite as relaxing a morning. They met next to the library, right on the edge of the vast grouping of tables and displays that was quad day.

"What happened to you?" Desmond asked. "You look like you've been running."

"Music majors," said Ezio, a shade bitterly.

"What about them?" Desmond asked. Between Ezio and Connor, he was starting to think he was doomed to never have a normal conversation.

Ezio gave a long suffering, slightly dramatic sigh. "My brother's dating... well maybe 'dating' is a little too serious... I guess he's seeing this girl that's a music major. The two of them thought it would be funny to get a bunch of her friends to follow me around with guitars."

"...and that's only the second weirdest think I've heard today," said Desmond. "Didn't you say your roommate was coming?"

"Bart and I split up to ditch the music majors," Ezio said. "He should be here soon."

So they waited there for another fifteen minutes. A steady stream of people passed them by, some in twos and threes, others in larger groups. But none of them turned out to be Ezio's roommate. Desmond started to feel impatient, but he could tell by the look on Ezio's face that he was more worried.

"He really should have been here already," said Ezio.

"He probably just got lost," said Desmond. "It's a big campus."

"Oh, no!" Ezio suddenly brightened. "There he is!"

"Hey, Ezio."

Bart, it turned out, was a big guy with a booming voice and a ready smile. He waved at Ezio, then at Desmond.

"What took you so long?" Ezio asked. "I thought something was wrong."

"Sorry, mother," Bart laughed. "But the minstrels were no match for me!"

"Minstrels?" Ezio repeated.

"Like from olden times," said Bart. "Little men with bells in their hats and no balls in their pants."

A passing girl gave them an 'are you sure you're not crazy' look, to which Ezio responded with a smile. Honestly, Desmond thought Bart might actually be a little crazy, but it didn't seem like the bad kind of crazy.

But, with Bart finally there with them, they were able to head into the quad proper. And, for a while, it was fine. There were people giving out free stuff, and a whole host of things to look at, ranging from sports to athletic clubs to people that liked to run around the physics building at night with nerf guns.

After a little more than half an hour of walking through crowds, Ezio complained, "Why is this quad so ridiculously large?"

"Because there's a ridiculous number of buildings," said Desmond.

"Can we just run around on the roofs?" Ezio asked as they struggled through the crowds- Bart, who stood head and shoulders above most of the crowd, nearly stepped on someone, and Ezio barely avoided a collision with a guy in a white hood.

"You'd fall," Desmond pointed out.

"Hey!" Ezio protested, and nearly tripped over a fallen tree branch.

"He has a point," Bart said.

-/-

In the end, they barely saw any more of quad day. Specifically, they got about as far as the music building, which bordered the quad to the southeast, before Ezio spotted a minstrel- the name was apparently going to stick- and decided they were leaving.

"This would probably be funny if it didn't involve us running away from guys with flutes so often," said Desmond after they'd gotten safely away. "Are you always this paranoid?"

"I'm not paranoid," said Ezio.

"I thought you said this was just your brother pulling a stupid prank."

"That's how it started," Ezio admitted. "But then some freshmen heard about it and now it's a competition, I guess." He shrugged. "I didn't want to mention it because it sounds a little crazy and I kind of thought they'd stop..."

"They'll forget about it when classes start," said Desmond. "They just have too much free time right now."

"Unless they decide it's still fun," Bart pointed out.

"Thanks," said Desmond. "Really helpful there."

**-/-**

**Another chapter where I have too much fun with characters meeting in AU situations. Not as exciting as later chapters, but I guess that's what happens when I switch tone halfway through. Oops.**


	3. Midterms: Round One: Fight

"I thought the point of midterms was to be in, like, the middle of the term when you take them," Ezio complained. "You know, so there's only one midterm for every class every semester. Not three."

"Guess not," Desmond said absentmindedly. Ezio had made this complaint so many times, he'd practically tuned it out. The two of them were studying for their upcoming midterms in Desmond's room. The cold war between Desmond and Shaun had only gotten worse in the month since classes had started, and Desmond was perfectly happy to let the overly talkative Ezio drive Shaun- who liked to study in complete silence- out of the room.

For a while, the studying went well- Ezio complained on and off, Desmond mostly ignored it, and all was well until it was interrupted by Desmond's phone buzzing.

"Who's texting you?" Ezio asked.

"Uh..." he read the message. "Connor."

"Who?"

"He lives in the dorm across the street but he eats in the caf here sometimes. Don't ask me why. I guess his dad is paying people over there to watch him or something so maybe that's why."

"That's messed up," said Ezio. "What's he texting you for?"

"His dad's spies are being especially annoying I guess and he needs a place to lie low for a while."

"Invite him up here," said Ezio.

"You just want an excuse to stop studying," said Desmond.

"Like I need one," Ezio vaguely waved the sixteen page study guide he'd started more than an hour ago. He had one page done.

"Good point," said Desmond, and texted Connor to come up. Not thirty seconds later, the phone rang.

"He get lost?" Ezio asked.

"Nah," said Desmond. "It's not him. It's my dad. Hang on."

His father's voice sounded scratchy and distant over the phone. "Desmond! Are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm fine. Why?"

"Nothing." But there was more than a hint of relief in his voice.

"Doesn't sound like nothing."

"It's fine. Just- just be careful, alright?"

"Yea, yea. Look both ways before crossing the street, don't talk to strangers-"

"This is serious, Desmond."

"I thought it was nothing?"

His phone clicked as William hung up. Desmond shrugged. He looked at Ezio. "Do your parents ever just spazz out and start talking like someone's out to kill your family or something?"

"Yea," Ezio shrugged. "Don't leave the house tonight, make sure your sister gets home safe, don't open the door... I figure it's a parent thing."

"Huh," said Desmond. "I kind of figured it was just my parents."

"Guess not," said Ezio, and then, in a complete change of subject; "I'm hungry, do you want to get some pizza?"

"You could just go to the caf."

"That's dorm pizza. It's gross."

Someone knocked on the door, and Desmond called for them to come in.

It was Connor. "Hey," he said, and glanced at Ezio. "Is this your roommate?"

"My roommate's the British dork with glasses," Desmond grumbled. "This is just Ezio."

"Hey!"

"Oh," said Connor. "The one in the lounge down the hall with the girl?"

"Maybe," said Desmond. "He-" he stopped. "Wait. Girl?"

"They're making out or something," said Connor.

"Okay then," said Desmond. "That doesn't sound like Shaun." But then he frowned, because after all he wasn't quite sure. "Hang on, I'm just gonna..." He dashed into the hall and surreptitiously walked past the floor's lounge. To his complete surprise, there was Shaun on the room's couch with a dark haired girl he'd never seen before.

"So... it's either Shaun or his evil twin," he said when he got back.

"Wow," said Ezio. "Shaun's got a girlfriend." He shook his head in disbelief.

"What," said Connor. "Is he gay or something? Why is that weird?"

"No," said Desmond. "It's just because he's... I don't know. Shaun. Why would a girl want to... with him...?"

"Well, I don't know your roommate," said Connor thoughtfully. "But in my experience, girls make very little sense."

Ezio laughed. "I like this guy," he said to Desmond. "He seems smart."

-/-

Desmond had never liked chemistry in high school, which probably explained why it just happened to be the only science class he'd been able to fit into his schedule that semester. So far he'd been able to muddle through it, mostly by bothering his lab partner for help three times a week, but the upcoming midterm had him more than a little worried. And that was why he came into his last lab class before the test ready to ask (or if necessary beg) for help.

Unfortunately, said lab partner wasn't there that morning. Of course.

He sighed, but for the moment there was nothing he could do about it. So, cautiously, he approached the pair of students that normally worked on the other side of his lab table. "Do you guys mind if I join you?" he asked. "My partner didn't show up today."

The two glanced at each other, and the closer one shrugged. "Sure," he said.

"Right," said Desmond, "Thanks...?"

"Tai."

"Short for Tyler?" Desmond asked.

"I wish," he snorted. "Short for Altair."

"It's a weird name," Tai's lab partner cut in.

"Shut up, Malik," said Tai, emphasizing the name.

"I go by Mal," he said, looking at Desmond. "What's your name?"

"Desmond."

-/-

They worked pretty well together for the first half hour of the lab. Well- Tai and Mal worked, while Desmond mostly ran around measuring things and getting supplies. The other two had a sort of rhythm going, not only in the way they worked, but in the way they kept shooting insults and snarky comments at one another. Desmond wasn't sure if he should say something until he realized that there was nothing actually insulting about the insults. They were just a couple of guys that had known each other forever.

"What about you, Desmond?"

"What?" Desmond had actually managed to tune them out by the time Tai decided to include him in the conversation.

"For the chem exam."

Desmond thought uncomfortably about his study session last weekend. Very little studying had actually been done. "Sort of."

"So no," said Mal.

"Not really."

"It's two days from now," Mal pointed out.

"Yea, I know," said Desmond.

"Well good luck."

-/-

He spent most of the next few days _actually_ studying, which sucked. Chemistry wasn't the only midterm he had coming up that week, but it was the most difficult, and by the time Desmond actually sat down to take the damn test, he wanted nothing so much as to just brain barf everything onto his paper so he could head back to the dorm and curl up into a fetal position for approximately fifteen hours.

He glanced around the testing room for a familiar face, but hesitated when the only one he saw was Tai's- the guy wasn't as bad as some of the people he'd met since starting school, just... arrogant, and a little bit rude. Before Desmond could head off though, Tai noticed him standing there and kind of nodded, so Desmond went over and sat down.

"Hey," said Tai.

"Hey," said Desmond. "Where's... what's his name. Your lab partner."

"Mal? He's in a different lecture."

"Oh."

"Hey! Desmond!"

"Oh, hey." Desmond hadn't thought about his missing lab partner since he hadn't shown up for class two days ago, but here he was now, sliding into a seat behind Desmond and Tai. "Leo, Tai. Tai, Leo." He turned back to Leo as Tai grunted a hello. "You didn't show Monday."

Leo made a face. "Yea, sorry about that. I had this really big project due for one of my art classes. I didn't get to bed until 7:00 and I slept through lab."

"'One of' your art classes?" Desmond repeated. "Why are you taking more than one?"

"I'm majoring in painting."

"Why?" Tai asked.

"I thought you were a biology major?" Desmond said.

"Oh, yea." Leo nodded. "That too. It's a double major. I'm thinking about switching the bio major to something in engineering, though."

"It's going to take you like seven years to get out of school," Desmond said.

"Probably," said Leo. "I want to come back for grad school too."

"You're crazy."

Leo shrugged, looking a little put out. "So people keep telling me."

-/-

Desmond, Leo, and Tai all finished within five minutes of each other. They walked out together. Just because. They walked east, until they got to Lincoln Avenue, where they would have to split up and head to their own dorms. That's when they saw him.

He was just a guy. He walked past them, headphones jammed in his ears, nodding away to a beat only he could hear. He was scanning a book he held in his hands. Then he glanced up, at the three of them. For a second, Desmond saw blank disinterest. Then his eyes went wide.

"Shit!" he dropped what he was carrying and took off, running as hard as he could.

"The fuck?" Desmond glanced at the other two. Leo looked utterly baffled, but Tai wasn't even looking at the runner.

"Something scared him," he said quietly.

"Or there's a dinosaur behind us," said Desmond, in a failed attempt to lighten the mood.

Leo glanced over his shoulder. "No dinosaurs."

"He's probably just drunk, or high or something," Desmond said.

"I don't think so," said Tai thoughtfully, and Desmond glanced over at him. His face was tilted up, and his gaze was intense.

"What's the matter?"

"I thought I saw..." Tai shook his head. "Never mind." Without another word, he walked off. Leo glanced at Desmond and shrugged. Desmond glanced upward as well, at the place Tai had been looking at. For a split second, he thought he saw a man in all white, somewhere high overhead. But it had to be a trick of the light. Who would be up on the roof?

**-/-**

**And this chapter is... I don't know, a thing that happened? Never really came out the way I wanted it to. Oh well. At least it's out and more people get introduced.**

**Oh, but I did want to put in a note about names. Obviously people with names that are more or less normal for modern times (Desmond, Connor, Leo) have the same ones, but Altair and Malik got nickname'd. Ezio didn't because... well, he's Ezio. I'm pretty sure he'd like the attention.**


	4. Thanksgiving

"You could try and look a little more depressed," Ezio said to Connor. Connor glared at him across the table, but Ezio remained unfazed. "No, that's angry. Also, Desmond-" Desmond glanced up from his computer. "Are you doing homework?"

"No." It was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break- an entire week off, and Desmond had little motivation to be productive. "I'm trying to get in touch with my parents. They haven't been answering their phones so I don't know if they even know to come pick me up today." He sighed. "I should just be looking up bus tickets."

"Don't bother," sad Ezio. "They sold out a while ago."

"Helpful as always," Desmond said.

"Just trying to help. Why are they ignoring you anyway?"

Desmond shrugged. "They travel a lot for work and don't always get cell reception."

"Yea? What do they do?"

"They never talk about it." He sighed. "So what's up with you, Connor?"

"Nine days with my dad," Connor said flatly. Desmond and Ezio exchanged looks. Connor wasn't the most expressive people at the best of times, but when he closed up this much it meant something was seriously off.

"Is he really that bad?" Ezio asked cautiously.

"Yes."

"Well at least you know he's going to show," said Desmond.

"Lucky me," Connor growled.

"Wow you two are just rays of sunshine," said Ezio.

"Says the guy with the perfect family," Connor grumbled.

"Hey, they're not perfect," Ezio protested.

"You talk about them like they are," said Connor.

"Okay, so maybe I actually like my parents," said Ezio. "Doesn't mean my family's perfect. I mean, I still have minstrels on my ass thanks to my brother."

That forced a laugh out of Desmond, and Connor's scowl only lessened a bit. "To be fair, I kind of doubt he meant it to go on this long."

"Well it doesn't matter how he meant it to turn out," said Ezio. "The point is, I still can't walk to class without a guy playing a guitar as an escort. Maybe you guys don't want to go home, but I can't wait."

-/-

"That's it, I give up." Desmond threw his pencil down. "Chemistry sucks."

"You say that ever Friday," Mal said without looking up from his textbook.

"Well maybe if you guys weren't all good at chem you'd understand what I was talking about," said Desmond.

"Tai's not that good."

"Thanks, Mal."

Leo snorted. The four of them had started up a study group after the grades for the first round of midterms came back. To be honest, it wasn't so much about the actual chemistry. They never talked about what had happened after the exam- especially Mal, who didn't even know about it. To be honest, Desmond didn't know why it was such a big deal, only that something told him it was.

But whatever their reasons were, the fact was that Desmond's quiz grades were going up and his labwork was actually making some sense for the first time.

"We're probably done now anyway." Tai stood and started packing up his stuff. "You ready to go, Mal?"

"Yea."

"You guys headed home?"

"Yep."

"Jealous." Desmond made a face. "Pretty sure my parents don't even know they need to show up to get me."

They left the library, and almost immediately someone barreled into Leo, knocking him clean off his feet.

"Sorry! Sorry- oh, Desmond."

"Hey Ezio. Minstrels again?"

"Yea..."

"Minstrels? What?" Mal looked torn between confusion and amusement.

"It's a long story," said Desmond. "I'll tell you later." Or, more likely, never. It was the kind of thing that sounded stupid when you tried to explain it.

"Can you maybe get off me now?" Leo asked mildly.

"Oh!" Ezio jumped up and reached back down to help Leo up. "Sorry. My bad."

He seemed a lot more at ease now that there were other people around. The minstrels were always less comfortable harassing larger groups of people.

"Who's this?" Tai asked.

"Ezio," said Desmond. "He's a friend of mine."

"Is this your study group?" Ezio asked.

"Yea," said Desmond, and pointed around the circle. "Tai, Mal, Leo."

"Oh, so you're Leo." Ezio grinned. "Desmond told me you have like three majors."

"Um, two technically, but I'm switching one of them," Leo muttered. Normally, this was the point where people told him how crazy he had to be. Ezio was not most people.

"That's awesome," he said. "I mean I'd never stick it out but that's cool if you can."

"Really?"

"Yea, really."

The two of them walked away, still chattering. Mal snorted. "So, should we just start planing the wedding now, or..?"

"Shut up, Mal," said Tai.

-/-

Desmond's parents did show up eventually. It was 8:30- Desmond was in his room, ignoring Shaun (as if it wasn't bad enough to be stuck at school way too late, he also had to deal with an international roommate who didn't go home for "made up American holidays"). 'Ignoring' might actually have been too strong of a word. It was difficult to ignore somebody that was as annoying as Shaun was. At the moment, for instance, he was complaining about the stupidity of Thanksgiving.

"I mean, it's not even historically accurate. When the first settlers came-"

"Shaun!" Desmond took a deep breath. "Just give it a rest. It's an excuse for a week off school, no one cares about the history."

"There's better excuses out there," said Shaun. "Excuses that don't completely ignore the cultural history of a whole group of people!"

"This is America," said Desmond. "We could get 'national ice cream week' off school and someone, somewhere, would still be offended."

"Bloody Americans."

"Tight assed-" his phone rang, and Desmond stopped, mouth open.

"Please." Shaun made a dismissive gesture. "Go and bother somebody else."

Desmond turned around so he wouldn't have to look at Shaun and, possibly, punch him before answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Desmond."

"Mom? Hey, did you get my calls?"

"Yea." He could hear her smiling through the phone. "Sorry we haven't called back, your dad and I have been a little busy the past couple weeks."

"I figured."

"But we're here now."

"Oh!" Desmond perked up. "You are?" He glanced around at Shaun, who was studiously ignoring him. "I will be down in sixty seconds."

-/-

He ran into Connor in the roundabout between their two dorms. "Hey," he said.

"Hey." Connor sounded, if anything, more annoyed than he had that morning over breakfast.

"Dad problems?" Desmond asked.

"He's three hours late and when he finally shows, apparently I'm holding him up because it took me five whole minutes to get down here." Connor shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Well, text me or something," Desmond said. "You know, if home gets too crazy."

"Yea..." Connor trailed off as a stern faced man, hair going gray and tired lines around his eyes, came up to the pair.

"About time you got here."

"Dad." Connor shot Desmond a 'see what I mean' look, which focused his father's attention onto Desmond.

"Who's your friend?"

Connor didn't actually sigh, but the expression on his face was as good as one. "Dad, Desmond Miles. Desmond, dad."

Desmond felt the eyes on him intensify, and stared right back. There was a challenge in that face. He couldn't decide what it meant, but he wasn't going to back down, just on general principles. It hadn't been a good day.

"I see. Well this has been... interesting. Apparently this trip hasn't been a complete waste."

This time, Connor did sigh aloud.

"I'm just... going to leave now," Desmond said, walking away from the decidedly weird conversation and leaving the two Kenways to glare at each other.

-/-

"Who was that?" Desmond's mother asked when they were twenty miles out from campus.

"Huh?" Desmond had been staring absentmindedly out the window. "Who was who?"

"The man I saw you talking to outside your dorm."

"Oh. Mom, that was like half an hour ago."

"Just answer the question," William barked.

"And this is why I like going to a college thousands of miles away," Desmond muttered.

"Desmond!"

"It was just Connor's dad," Desmond muttered.

"Connor who?"

"Dad, you've done this with every single friend I've ever had," Desmond complained.

"So you should be used to it."

Desmond rolled his eyes, feeling like a child. "Kenway. Happy now?"

The inside of the car went instantly, completely, silent. After several seconds, William said, "No. Not happy at all."

**-/-**

**I feel like I should probably mention at this point that I have no problem with music majors. Just for the record. Some of my best friends are music majors. Okay no not really but this really weird kid I play dungeons and dragons with happens to be a music major and he's generally a pretty likeable guy, and that's almost the same thing. :)**


	5. First Day Back

It was good to get back to school. Desmond had done nothing over break but argue with his parents and eat undercooked turkey. His parents didn't like his grades, didn't like his new habit of sleeping to noon, definitely didn't like his friends. Or at least, they didn't like Connor. After the monumentally bad reaction they'd had over Connor (that particular argument had lasted the entirety of the drive home), Desmond hadn't bothered mentioning anyone else.

He opened the door to his dorm room for the first time in nine days, and was greeted with the sighe of Shaun sitting on his bed, deeply absorbed in the task of introducing his tongue to the mouth of the same girl Desmond had seen him with in the lounge a couple months ago.

He thought about just closing the door and leaving, but decided he wasn't really in the mood to play the part of considerate roommate (besides, why start now?). So instead, he walked in, dumped his stuff on his bed, and said- "Hey Shaun. Shaun's girlfriend."

"Seriously, Desmond?" Shaun glared at him as he and the girl quickly disentangled.

"Oh. You're the roommate?" The girlfriend waved. "Hi. I'm Rebecca."

"Becca!" Shaun sounded almost whiny. "We're not being nice to him!"

"Why not?" Rebecca demanded.

"I like her, Shaun," Desmond laughed.

"And you." Rebecca suddenly turned on Desmond.

"Woah, what'd I do?"

"If I have to spend one more minute listening to Shaun complaining about how much it sucks to be your roommate-"

"Like you don't complain about me to your friends," Shaun muttered when Desmond shot him a look.

"My friends are too busy being insane to listen to me," said Desmond. "Come on, you've met Ezio."

"Yea, actually," Shaun said. "I had actually noticed that one, but I just figured, hey, birds of a feather."

"Really? Guys." Rebecca glared. "Okay, you know what? You two are going on a date."

"He's not my type," said Shaun, as Desmond struggled to find his voice. "Besides, I think my girlfriend might be jealous."

"She's fine," said Rebecca.

"Mine might have a problem," Desmond interjected.

"You actually have a girlfriend?"

"Shut up, Shaun."

"That's it." Rebecca threw up her hands. "You guys are going bowling. Tonight."

"Ew."

"I hate bowling."

"Good," said Rebecca. "You're agreeing on something already."

-/-

Desmond went down to the union (where Rebecca had arranged their little bowling trip- not a date- with Shaun) nearly an hour early. There was food there and he was hungry and he didn't want to have to meet Connor or Ezio in the cafeteria and explain that, no, he couldn't do anything fun because he had a stupid date with his roommate.

Which was, of course, why he ran into Tai almost immediately.

"Oh hey," said Desmond, trying to sound casual and very aware that his face had gone red as a tomato. "What are you doing here?"

"Coffee," said Tai. He looked tired.

"Oh."

"What's wrong with your face?" Tai asked.

"Nothing." He could feel it turning redder.

"No seriously."

"I accidentally let Shaun's girlfriend set me and him up on a date."

Tai stared at him for almost thirty seconds in complete silence. Then he said, "That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard today."

"I know," Desmond grumbled.

"But I'm going to do you a favor," Tai added.

"Yea?"

"I'm going to get my coffee," Tai said. "And then I'm going to leave. And I'm going to never mention we had this conversation."

"Sounds fair."

-/-

"...you suck at this."

"Says the guy with negative points," Desmond shot back. Shaun glared at him.

"You can't even get negative points in bowling!" Shaun protested. "This thing's rigged."

"Sure it is," said Desmond. "Rigged or not I'm kicking your ass."

"So this is about winning now?"

"Well it's not about sharing our most intimate feelings," Desmond grumbled.

"Obviously, but..." Shaun heaved a deep sigh. "Look, people are staring and I did promise Rebecca. Can we maybe... find a middle ground? Or just pretend. A little."

"Fine." To be honest the idea of not sharing a bedroom with someone that straight up hated him was tempting.

"Right."

"Okay."

"So. Something we have in common."

"Nothing," said Desmond.

"There has to be something," said Shaun. He sighed. "You like pizza?"

"Sure."

"Me too. With olives?"

"Not really."

"How about pasta?"

"I can take it or leave it."

"Pineapple."

"Okay, either you're planning the weirdest lunch ever or you just suck at small talk."

Desmond groaned. "Ezio. Why are you here."

"Tai said you guys were down here," Ezio explained as he dropped into the seat next to Shaun.

"He told you?" Desmond demanded. "He promised he wouldn't."

"Mal dragged it out of him," Ezio said. "And then Mal told Connor and Connor told me and I told Leo and then we all came down."

"Seriously? All five of you?"

"Yea," said Ezio. "Oh, and Rebecca. Apparently she knows Tai and Mal from somewhere..?" he shrugged. "Anyway the point is whoops we're all bowling I guess it's party time."

"You are a terrible awful friend."

"Oh come on, like this was going to end well if we were here or not. Do you think we have enough chairs?"

-/-

And that was when the awkward evening started to turn fun. It was also when Desmond discovered that he could not only stand Shaun when diluted into larger groups, he actually sort of- just a little- liked the guy. At least well enough to stop sleeping with one eye open.

They ordered pizza, and played two whole games of bowling, which was way more bowling than Desmond had ever gone through at one time before. It helped that not one of them managed to bowl above 57 on either game.

It was a truly impressive display. For given definitions of impressive.

At the end of the second game, Ezio threw up his arms. "That's it," he said. "I'm done."

"Come on," said Rebecca. "A twenty two isn't that bad."

"It's pretty bad," said Connor.

Ezio made an impressively expressive face.

"So... sore loser?" asked Mal.

"I guess so," said Desmond. "I- did you see that?"

There was a man, sitting on the opposite side of the dimly lit bowling alley. Desmond could barely make him out, but he seemed to be studying the group with almost frightening intensity.

"No," said Mal.

"I see him," Connor volunteered. "He's kind of... staring."

"Weirdo," Shaun said dismissively. "Anyway, let's just get out of here. I'm with Ezio on this one. Definitely enough bowling for one night."

-/-

When they left the building, Connor cornered Desmond and pulled him away from the rest of the group, so they were walking several feet behind the others.

"What's up?" Desmond asked.

"Why did my dad tell me your parents are terrorists?"

Desmond stared at him. "I have no idea."

"So they're not."

"No! They- well, I don't exactly know what they do. But I know they're not terrorists."

"Okay then. I didn't think so, but..."

"But they did tell me to stay away from you," Desmond said.

"Well clearly they know each other," said Connor.

"Just wish we knew where from," said Desmond.

"We'll figure it out." Connor had his determined face on.

"Figure what out?" Ezio suddenly appeared beside them.

"Ah!" Desmond tripped over a piece of sidewalk and almost face planted. "When did you get so quiet?"

"Is this about the creepy guy from the bowling alley?" Ezio asked.

"No," said Connor. "Why?"

"Because he's following us." Ezio said, and pointed- of all places- up. Desmond and Connor craned their necks, and Desmond could just barely see that Ezio was right. There he was, the creepy guy watching from a nearby rooftop.

The others had by this point noticed the three of them had stopped and dropped back to join the conversation.

"You sure it's the same guy?" Rebecca asked.

"Definitely," said Desmond.

"Let's go get him," said Ezio.

"Are you crazy?" Shaun demanded. "He's some creepy guy who climbs up buildings and follows people around campus at 11:30 at night. He's probably going to murder us all. I mean, come on. He's like the guy parents tell their kids about to keep them from trusting strangers."

"Can we even get up there?" Connor asked, ignoring Shaun.

"He did," Tai pointed out.

"He's nuts!" Shaun said.

"I'm gonna try it," said Ezio, and Shaun threw up his hands.

"Of course you are."

"Um, guys?" Leo interrupted, a little hesitantly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shaun demanded.

"Guys!" Leo tried again, louder this time. "He's gone."

They looked back up at the rooftop. It was empty.

**-/-**

**So I'm back on campus now, which means I will have more things I need to get done, which means I will spend more time avoiding these things, and more time writing. Probably. You know, just in case anyone cares about updates.**


	6. Finals

"This is boring," Ezio complained.

"You literally say that every single time you do any studying," said Desmond. "Anyway, do you have to say it so loudly?" They were in the library, an overcrowded, underground building, which today was packed with students cramming for upcoming finals. At the moment, a lot of them were shooting angry looks their way.

"I'm sick of being quiet."

"I noticed." Desmond tried not to roll his eyes. He was tired of studying too, but he didn't need to complain about it. "But everyone's staring."

"Not everyone," said Ezio, because of course he had to argue. But he did lower his voice- for a second. Then he sat up sharply and hissed (in a voice that still managed to be loud) "Look- not everyone."

"I know," said Desmond. "You just said that."

"Look behind you," said Ezio, and pointed.

Desmond gave a quick glance over his shoulder, more to humor Ezio than anything else. Then he did a double take. The same guy they'd seen on the roof and in the bowling alley right after Thanksgiving was three tables over, very pointedly not looking at him.

"It's that same guy?" he whispered. Ezio nodded. "What do we do?"

"We... go talk to him." Ezio stood up and started to walk away.

"What, here?" Desmond demanded.

"Yea."

"Now?"

"Yep." Seeing that Ezio clearly had no plans to stop, Desmond got up to follow him. Ezio affixed a smile onto his face. "Hey there." He sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table from Rooftop Guy (a stupid nickname that had somehow gotten stuck after the last time they'd seen him).

"Oh God," Desmond muttered. Ezio ignored him, but Roof Guy glanced over at him, then very quickly away. There was something weird about the guy, and it wasn't just the way he was apparently following them around and spying on them. There was something off about him. And his face.

At the moment, his face mostly just looked surprised that the two of them were there. "Um. Hey."

"So, you're following us, right?" Ezio asked.

"Well, sort of." Roof Guy seemed to be trying to sound in control of the conversation. Not very successfully. "It's a pretty long story."

"Well, I want to hear it," said Ezio.

"I'm pretty sure you don't," said Roof Guy.

"How do you know what I want?" Ezio asked.

"I know a lot more about you than you think I do," said Roof Guy. "Shit. That sounded creepy."

"Just a lot," Desmond muttered.

"I still want to hear your pretty long story," Ezio said, stubborn as always.

"No."

"Come on, man," Ezio complained. "You can't just leave us hanging like that."

"I could be a crazy stalker," Roof Guy pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure you are," said Ezio.

"You don't want to know."

"I don't want to know, or you don't want to tell me?" Ezio asked.

Roof Guy gave a halfhearted smile. "Fine."

"Wait, seriously?" Desmond asked. He'd never met a crazy stalker before but he didn't think this conversation was supposed to be happening.

"But not here," Roof Guy added.

"Okay," said Ezio. "Pick a place."

"Are you sure that letting the creepy stranger pick a meeting place is a good idea?" Desmond asked, in an undertone.

"We gotta find out what's going on!" Ezio protested.

"Ok, look," Desmond said. "You can come back to the dorm, we'll all pack into my room."

"I'm seriously not going to kill you or anything," Roof Guy said.

"Probably not," said Desmond. "But you're weird."

-/-

Desmond texted Connor on the way back to the dorm, as he figured Connor could get everyone gathered fastest.

They walked in silence for several blocks as a light snow started to fall. About halfway there, Shaun texted Desmond to tell Connor to get out of the room.

"What's his problem?" Ezio asked, reading the text over Desmond's shoulder.

"He's just being a dick," said Desmond.

"I thought we liked Shaun now?" Ezio asked.

"We do," said Desmond. "But he's being anal about finals and just going on and on about revolutionary war, blah blah blah, history, whatever..." he shrugged. "When he gets stressed he starts studying out loud. I think I know more about eighteenth century America than I will ever need to."

"You might be surprised," Roof Guy said. "Sometimes you do need to know this stuff."

"Yea right," said Desmond. "Are you laughing?"

"No."

"Sounds like it."

-/-

They ran into Connor just outside the dorm building. "Your roommate's crazy."

"Why?" Desmond asked.

"He punched me in the face." Connor looked more confused than upset, although Desmond could see a black eye starting to form. The stranger let out what sounded like an involuntary snort of laughter. Connor narrowed his eyes. "So this is Roof Guy."

"'Roof Guy'..?"

"Well you do follow us around on roofs..." Desmond muttered.

"Once."

"At least twice," said Desmond. "There was that time after bowling-"

"Well okay, yea."

"And then there was after the chemistry exam," Desmond continued. "And I don't know how many times we didn't happen to notice."

"I only did it once," Roof Guy insisted.

"And on that cryptic note..." the new voice came from behind them, but Desmond recognized it as Tai's without turning around.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I texted him," said Connor. "For whatever he's going to say." he jabbed his thumb at Roof Guy.

"Speaking of," said Desmond. "Where are we doing this?"

"I guess my room," said Ezio resignedly. "It's sort of a mess, but Bart's out I think."

-/-

So the five of them trooped up to Ezio's room. Ezio flopped down on his bed and studied Roof Guy, chin in his hands. The rest of them found places around the room; Tai stole Ezio's chair, while Connor sat cross legged on the floor. Desmond pushed Ezio's feet out of the way and sat on the other end of his bed. They all watched Roof Guy, who was still standing, apparently trying to find a good place to start talking.

"So..?" Predictably, Ezio got tired of waiting first. Connor sat completely unmoving, and Tai could have been carved from stone. Desmond felt a little sick, and found himself squeezing his hands into fists. He took a breath and forced them to unclench. He didn't think he wanted to hear what Roof Guy had to say.

"So... okay." Roof Guy sighed. "There's really no way to start this without sounding crazy."

"How about a name?" Tai suggested.

Roof Guy shook his head. "I'll wait on that, I think. Alright- how about this. What do you know about alternate universes?"

"They don't exist," said Connor flatly.

"Actually, they do," said Roof Guy. "I'm from one."

Tai actually laughed at that. Tai. Laughed. Desmond had only ever heard him do that a couple of times. "Good one," he said.

"No, really," said Roof Guy. "It's... well, complicated. I don't know exactly how I got here, or why, but it's not the universe I was born in."

"Or you're just a crazy person," said Ezio.

"But I'm not," said Roof Guy.

"Sure," said Connor. "Do you have any actual proof? Because Ezio's right."

"Really?" Ezio sounded surprised.

"You do sound extremely crazy," Connor finished.

"You still haven't even told us your name," Desmond pointed out.

"If you already think I'm crazy, this isn't going to help," Roof Guy protested. "But okay-" he hesitated, then said, "My name is Desmond Miles."

Desmond could almost feel his brain stop working for a second as he tried to work his way through that particular bombshell. Obviously Roof Guy was crazy. Or maybe he was just overreacting and it would all just end up being a coincidence. Or maybe- he glanced over at Roof Guy and then quickly away. Again there was that feeling of strange familiarity. It was almost eerie. But that didn't mean this was true.

"I don't see it," Connor said flatly.

"I can," said Ezio, half squinting. "Kind of. It's in, you know-" he gestured. "The nose."

"He just has one of those faces," said Connor. "He looks like everyone."

"Thanks Connor," Desmond muttered.

"I mean, he and Tai look like they could be brothers. Or relatives or something."

"About that..." Roof Guy muttered, but the others were too involved in their argument by that point to pay him any attention.

"I still think I believe him," Ezio said stubbornly. He turned to Desmond. "What do you think?"

"I don't know," Desmond muttered. He thought about his parent's weird behavior over Thanksgiving, about Connor's dad, about being followed around by a guy on a roof, and about the kid that had seen him and Tai and Leo and run off. "There's been some weird stuff going on this semester, but I think this is weirder."

Tai turned his gaze back to Roof Guy. "There's more to the story, isn't there?"

"Just a little."

"Then let's hear it."

-/-

Roof Guy's story, far from making things clearer, only made them more confusing. He started by drawing three symbols on the back of Ezio's accounting homework, which happened to be lying out nearby. The first was a sort of triangle, the second a stylized 'A', and the third looked like four triangles pointing inward, or maybe a misshapen cross. "Have you ever seen any of these before?" Roof Guy asked, pointing at the three symbols.

They all looked strange to Desmond, but Connor nodded. He pointed at the triangle. "That's the logo for the company my dad works for," he said. "Abstergo. I don't know the other two."

Roof Guy pointed at the cross. "They're a secret organization that actually controls Abstergo, who are involved in pretty much everything and- wow that kind of sounds crazy..."

"I think it's going to save a lot of time if we all just go with the assumption that we think you're crazy," said Tai.

"...right. So this is the templar symbol. And templars basically want to be in control of everything. And-" he pointed at the fancy A. "This is the assassins' symbol. We don't like that. Basically. I mean, it's two groups of people that have been around for so far back we don't actually have records of when they started. It's complicated."

"You said 'we'," said Connor. "You're an assassin."

"I was born into an assassin compound but I left when I was sixteen," Roof Guy said.

"Why?" Desmond asked.

"It's complicated."

"What isn't?" Ezio asked. "Where'd you go?"

"New York," said Roof Guy. "And then the templars found me, and kidnapped me, and-" he cut himself off. "Actually let's skip that part. It's even weirder than the rest and not a lot of fun to talk about."

"It's weird compared to the rest of what you said so far?" Tai's tone was flatly skeptical.

"Oh yea."

"You know what?" Ezio said, after giving the matter due consideration. "I think either your story is crazy enough to be true, or you have the most awesome delusions ever."

-/-

"And then he just left?" Shaun demanded. When Desmond got back to his room, he found Shaun and Rebecca already there, and Desmond had related the entire story of what had happened t the library and in Ezio's room with Roof Guy.

"Yea," Desmond answered. "Just said he had somewhere to be and left."

"What are we supposed to do about a story that crazy?" Rebecca demanded. "Just believe him? Just like that?"

Desmond shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe?"

"Rebecca, calm down!" Shaun looked more panicked by Rebecca having a sudden attack of the emotions than by the news that in another universe, his roommate might be an assassin.

"I will not!" Rebecca snapped.

"There's nothing we can do, anyway," said Desmond. "Miles is gone, we don't know if anything he said is true, and we still have finals coming up."

"I notice we're not calling him Roof Guy anymore though," Shaun muttered.

"Well yea," Desmond admitted.

"What about Abstergo?" Rebecca asked. "They're supposedly templars, right?"

"In another universe," said Desmond. "And Connor said he'd see what he could find out over break anyway."

"I have a question," said Shaun. "If this guy isn't a nutter, what's he doing here? And what do we do about it?"

"He wouldn't say how he got here," said Desmond. "And I guess we just... I don't know. Deal."

"And still take finals," Rebecca added, unhappily.

"Do you know any professor that's going to accept this as an excuse?" Desmond asked.

**-/-**

**And this is where it gets weird.**


	7. Christmas Part I

"How were finals?"

"Fine."

"And how are your friends?"

"Fine."

"You're not still spending time with Connor, are you?" Desmond's dad interrupted the fairly one sided conversation between Desmond and his mother. Yet another wonderful drive home.

"Yep."

"Desmond, I told you-"

"Stay away from him, I know," Desmond said. "His dad told him the same thing about me."

"I guess we agree on something then," William said. "I definitely thought that was impossible."

Desmond thought about Miles, and everything else that had happened during his first semester, and decided William had a very limited definition of 'impossible'. He didn't say any of that, though. Instead, he asked, "What's your problem with him anyway?" It wasn't that he didn't already have an idea, but he wanted to hear what his dad would say.

"It has nothing to do with you, and trust me. You're better off that way."

"Come on, dad," Desmond complained. "You can't make up rules about who I'm allowed to be friends with an then not even give me a reason." He hesitated, then asked, "It's not because of Abstergo, is it?"

The car came to a stop so quickly Desmond knocked his head against the seat in front. "Dad, what the-"

"Where did you hear about that?"

"At school." Suddenly, he felt afraid- until that point, he hadn't been sure Miles was telling the truth. It could have been a crazy story made up by a crazy person. But if his story wasn't the truth, what was this reaction?

"From Connor?" William demanded.

"No."

"Listen, Desmond." William seemed to be trying very hard to keep control of the conversation. "Abstergo, the things they do, they're- it's complicated."

"Complicated." Like assassin-templar complicated?

"Complicated," William repeated. "And son, if you never listen to anything else I say, listen to this. Stay away from Abstergo."

"Fine," Desmond muttered.

"Promise?"

"Yea, sure."

But as William took his foot off the brake and eased the car back into traffic, Desmond realized this was a promise he had no intention of keeping. He just didn't think he could let it go that easily.

-/-

He was careful not to mention Abstergo to his parents again, but for the rest of break, Desmond kept his eyes open. And he started to notice things, now that he knew what he was looking for. Most of them were little things- the kind he wouldn't have given a second thought to before Miles showed up. Conversations that suddenly stopped when he came into a room. Visitors that came at night and left without giving a name.

Desmond would have liked to know what Connor had found out, if anything. Unfortunately, he wasn't answering his phone, or his email. Desmond didn't think he even had a facebook. Actually, the first one of his friends Desmond heard from was Ezio. And that was when the problems started.

It was two days after Christmas, and Desmond was at the mall with Lucy, when his phone went off.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Friend from school," he said. "Ezio."

"That's an... unusual name."

"It's Italian or something," Desmond said, and answered the call. "Hey. What's up?"

Ezio sounded unusually serious through the phone's speakers. "My dad's in jail."

"What? Hang on, wha-"

"I don't really know what happened," Ezio said. "Some... I don't know. Financial embezzlement or something- I don't get it, but it's _something _illegal and I guess they got evidence on my brother too, because he's been doing internships with my dad, but I know it's not true and- sorry I'm kind of freaking out. And I didn't know who else to call and I had to tell someone."

Desmond stared at the phone. He didn't know how to deal with this. He had no idea what was going on. But he knew saying that wasn't exactly an option, so instead he asked, "Where are you now?"

"At Leo's," said Ezio. "He's like half an hour south of where I live but he's not home so I'm just kind of sitting on his driveway."

"Where's the rest of your family?" Desmond asked. "Your mom, and- you have younger siblings too, right?"

"My mom's back home," said Ezio. "With my younger brother and sister. But she's just kind of shut down and I didn't want to stay." He sounded miserable. "Look, sorry to dump this all on you. I know you can't really do anything, but-"

"Yea, any time. Just..." he didn't know what made him add- "Be careful."

"Yea."

After Desmond hung up, he turned to look at Lucy. "If you had to find a guy, but you didn't know his name, or where he lived, or anything- how would you do it?" Ezio was in some kind of trouble, and while it _might _ have a completely normal explanation, it stank of strangeness so badly that Desmond thought it was very likely there was some kind of connection. If not to Miles himself, then at least to the assassins and the templars. The problem was finding him, and then getting his help.

"I probably wouldn't," said Lucy. "What kind of people are you hanging out with at school that you don't even know their name?"

"It's not that I don't know his name..." Desmond trailed off and shrugged. "I just don't think he'll be using it."

Lucy shook her head. "Unless it's something important, I wouldn't even bother. I mean, do you even know anything about this guy?"

"Not really," Desmond said, "I-" he stopped, because that was wrong. Technically, he knew Miles pretty damn well. He knew where Miles was, because he knew where he would be if it was him. And it was.

Time travel was weird.

-/-

The Riverside Motel was a locally owned dump of a building that smelled like rotten fish and had looked like it was about to fall over since it had first been built fifteen years ago. The name was the building's most attractive feature, and it was technically a lie, as there was no river anywhere near Riverside. Sometimes, when it rained a lot, the parking lot flooded a bit, but that wasn't quite the same.

It was was about fifteen minutes from Desmond's place- close enough for Miles to be able to do his creepy stalker thing (Desmond was assuming Miles would have followed him home from college, mostly because there was no other hope of finding him in time to help).

He parked his car in one of the many empty spaces in the lot and turned the car's engine off.

"This is where your friend is?" Lucy asked, a little uncertainly.

"I think so," said Desmond. "Maybe. Do you want to come with?"

"I think I'll pass," said Lucy.

"Okay. Yea."

"Fine."

"Are you..."

"I'm good," Lucy said, but she definitely sounded upset. Desmond bit back a groan. Now on top of everything else he had an annoyed girlfriend. Not that he could blame her. Riverside was a crap place to spend an afternoon.

But he wasn't going to turn back after coming all the way out, so in he went. Inside the lobby, an old, half bald man stood behind the man stood behind the room's only piece of furniture, a large and much abused desk. A grimy window and a bare lightbulb were the only sources of light in the room. "Hi," Desmond said as he approached. "Can you tell me if there's a guy staying here? He kind of looks like me but a little older."

The man barely looked up from the issue of _National Inquirer _he'd been reading. "Room seventeen," he grunted, and Desmond, eager to get out of the lobby, beat a hasty retreat. The motel had only two floors, with eight rooms- and the lobby- on the first floor, and ten on the second. Room seventeen was on the second floor, it's door painted an unattractive shade of blue. Desmond raised his fist to knock, hesitated, then went for it.

He stood there waiting for half an awkward minute, wondering if he should knock again or just leave, before he heard a voice behind him. "What are you doing here?" Desmond hadn't heard anyone walk up the hall but there was Miles, a quart of milk in one hand and a grocery bag in the other.

"I don't think you're crazy," Desmond blurted. "And I kind of need your help. Well, technically Ezio does." As quickly as he could, he explained what Ezio had told him. Miles was frowning by the end of it.

"Why did you come to me?"

Desmond shrugged. "I just... had a bad feeling. This isn't going to end well. Is it?"

"No," said Miles. "Not if things go the way they did in my universe."

"What do you mean?" Desmond asked.

Miles hesitated, then handed Desmond his milk and fished around in his jacket pocket for his keys. "Come inside," he said. "We shouldn't have this conversation in the hall."

Desmond followed Miles inside, into a room that looked exactly as bad as everything else in the motel. Miles took the milk back and stuck it in a cooler.

"So," said Desmond. "What's going to happen with Ezio?"

But Miles didn't answer directly. "The weird thing about this universe is that some things are completely different from mine, and some are exactly the same."

"So?"

"So I know what happened to Ezio in one universe, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen the same here. And I'm saying that because it didn't work out so well in my world."

"His father was killed?" Desmond asked, worst fears suddenly confirmed.

"And both his brothers," Miles added.

"Even the younger one? How does that even happen?"

"This all took place in the fifteenth century," said Miles. "Laws were a little less strict back then."

"Seriously?" Desmond said, momentarily distracted. "Fourteen hundreds? I have a hard time picturing that."

"Trust me, I think it's weirder from my point of view," said Miles grimly. "In my world, Ezio watched half his family hang when he was seventeen, saw his mother go almost mad with grief, and spent the next several decades hunting the templars responsible."

"Shit," said Desmond. "That can't happen."

"I know," said Miles. "It won't."

Desmond's phone chose that moment to ring. He glanced down- Connor. Of course he would ignore his phone all break and then call at the most inconvenient moment. He was about to answer, when a thought suddenly struck him. "Hang on," he said. "If your Ezio lived like six centuries ago, how do you know so much about it?"

"That's a story for another time," said Miles firmly.

"But-"

"Are you going to answer that?" Miles asked, nodding at the phone, and Desmond scowled but did.

"Miles was definitely telling the truth," Connor said flatly.

"Yea," Desmond said. "I kind of figure that one out. Look, you sort of... missed some stuff when you weren't answering your phone."

"My dad had it," said Connor. "But listen. I went through his computer today. I found that templar symbol in there, along with a ton of locked files. I sent them to Rebecca, and she got some of them open. Not all of them, and some of the ones she did get open don't make sense. But there's enough there to see that... well, I can't tell if the alternate universe stuff is real, but the rest? Definitely all true."

He sounded... shaken, Desmond was surprised to realize, and he wondered if he should say something. Before he could, his phone beeped, informing him that he had another call. "Crap. Hang on, Connor. My dad's calling."

He switched to the other line. "Hey dad."

"Where are you?"

Desmond hesitated. "Out with Lucy." Technically, it was true.

"What, again?"

"Yes, dad." He had to keep himself from rolling his eyes, because he wasn't fifteen anymore. It was just that sometimes his dad made him feel like he was. "That's what happens when you date someone."

"Well, I need you home."

"Dad," Desmond complained. "Come on-"

"Now."

His tone brooked no argument, and reluctantly, Desmond gave in. "...fine." He switched back to Connor's line without bothering to say bye. "I have to go."

"Something happen?"

"Just my dad."

"Alright. Oh- and don't call me for the rest of break?"

"Why not?"

"I only have my phone back now because my dad's gone on some business trip. He'll be back soon though and I don't know exactly when. If he confiscates it again, I don't want him knowing we're still talking."

"Okay. I'll see you at school then."

Connor hung up, and Desmond turned back to Miles. "I need to get home," he said.

Miles nodded. "I'll see what I can find out about Ezio."

"Thanks," said Desmond. He was halfway to the door when Miles called out after him.

"Hey Desmond?"

"Yea?"

"About Lucy..."

"What about her?"

"Just... be careful." He looked like there was more he wanted to say, a lot more, but the only thing that came out was, "Some things might be different, but... just be careful."

"Um... sure?" Desmond backed out of the room, completely confused, and reflecting that 'be careful' could have meant anything from the relatively mundane 'try not to get her pregnant' to 'she's a Martian and wants to suck your brains out'. Unlikely, but still. He wondered if Miles was speaking from experience, if he had a Lucy back in his universe.

-/-

He dropped Lucy off, after apologizing more than once for dragging her to the shittiest place in town and then taking her home early. She didn't seem happy about it, but at least she didn't actually come out and say anything. The silent treatment was usually a bad sign, but Desmond didn't have time to deal with it at the moment.

Back home, he found the kitchen empty and all as usual, except for a note left taped to the microwave which read: _Desmond- went to the airport with your father to pick up some people. Dinner's in the fridge. Please do not leave the house for anything short of an actual, life threatening, emergency. Love, mom._

Desmond sighed and made a face at the note. This wasn't the first time he'd come home to "nothing's wrong but don't go outside or answer the door or sneeze too loudly". He used to think it was just overprotectiveness. But now, thanks to Miles, he wondered what his parents might be up to.

He tried calling Ezio, but got his voice mail instead. So, with nothing better to do, Desmond had dinner, went upstairs, and had himself a three hour nap.

-/-

When he woke, it was dark out and there were voices coming from the kitchen. Two were his parents', and there were at least two more he didn't know, but one he recognized as- of all people's- Ezio's. Curious, Desmond went back downstairs, where he found his parents, Ezio, and a younger girl and even smaller boy that he guessed must be Ezio's younger siblings.

"Hey," he said, dropping into a seat next to Ezio. "What are you guys doing here?"

Ezio only shrugged in an unhappy and distinctly un-Ezio-like silence.

"You two know each other?" William interrupted.

"We're in the same dorm," Desmond said. "Why did you bring them here?"

"You never mentioned you were friends," William pressed on, ignoring the question.

"Why would I?" Desmond demanded. "You kind of spazzed when I mentioned Connor. I thought, hey, maybe I should stop telling you what goes on in my life."

"That was completely different," William said stiffly.

"Sure it was," said Desmond. "Obviously. Should have known."

William glared daggers at him, and Desmond held up his hands in surrender. He was more worried about Ezio at the moment than the argument.

"Good," said William, "Because you're actually interrupting something." He turned his attention to Ezio. "I can offer you and your siblings a safe place to stay while your mom... recovers. But I can't offer you anything more than that."

"What about my dad and brother?" Ezio demanded.

"The people that had them arrested aren't the kind of people that can be reasoned with," said William. "And in this case, they won't be bribed, threatened, or blackmailed. They've been after your family for too long." He sighed. "I'm sorry I can't do more-"

"That's not good enough!" Ezio suddenly shouted. He sounded angrier than Desmond had ever heard him. "I've already talked to the lawyers and they say there's no hope either. They're going to go to trial and if these guys are horrible enough that we-" he gestured around at his siblings and himself- "Need to be taken across the country to keep us safe, I don't think they're going to last long in prison if they're convicted."

"You're right," said William. And his voice was steel. "But you have to accept that, because there's no other choice."

Ezio shook his head. "I won't accept it," he said. "They're not going to die. If you won't help them, I will." He pushed his chair away from the table so hard it nearly fell over, before grabbing his jacked and storming out of the house.

Desmond jumped up as well. "I'm going after him," he announced. He half expected an argument, but William only nodded.

-/-

He found Ezio two blocks away, sitting on the curb of a dark and empty street. "So... that was a thing, I guess," Desmond said, sitting down beside his friend.

"Sorry," said Ezio. "But he just expects me to do nothing! It's my dad, Desmond. And my brother. I can't just stand by- but I don't know what to do."

Desmond felt he could relate to not knowing what to do, because he had no idea what the right thing to say was. So he just nodded and let Ezio rant.

"Stuff like this doesn't just happen," Ezio muttered. "I can't- this can't be the way things are supposed to go." He rubbed his face with both hands, so the next words came out muffled. "There was this guy who I guess reported my dad to the cops. He works for Abstergo, which means he's probably a templar, and-" He glanced up at Desmond. "Fuck. This is crazy talk, isn't it?"

"I don't think so," said Desmond. "And I talked to Miles earlier. He doesn't think so either." He quickly gave Ezio a run down of what had happened at the motel.

"So... this happened in that other universe too?"

"I guess," said Desmond.

"We should get Miles to tell us more about that," said Ezio absentmindedly. They said nothing for a while after that, until at last Ezio said- "This has to stop."

"What does?"

"There are people out there- Abstergo, templars, whatever they're calling themselves- playing God and just doing whatever they want. Ruining peoples' lives." Ezio looked straight at Desmond. "That's not okay."

"What are you going to do about it?" Desmond asked.

Ezio said- "I'm going to stop them."

**-/-**

**Oops this chapter got really long I don't know how that happened sorry guys.**


	8. Christmas Part II

For the rest of break, Desmond found himself sharing a room not only with Ezio, but also with Ezio's younger brother. This would have been less than ideal in any situation, but what made it worse was that Desmond and Ezio were Planning. There are few things less helpful to the planning process than a preteen younger sibling, especially one that just happens to be having the worst Christmas of their life.

But the plans were necessary.

They started out on New Years. It was a pretty quiet evening, as- while Desmond's parents hadn't technically forbidden them from leaving the house, there had been implications made that it might not be a bad idea to stay out of sight. So of course Ezio took the first opportunity to climb out the nearest available window.

"You have got to stop doing that," Desmond complained when he finally managed to track Ezio down.

"I'm going stir crazy," Ezio complained.

"Or just crazy," Desmond muttered. "Listen-" he paused, head cocked. "Wait, actually. Do you hear that?"

"No..." but Ezio was glancing around, a little uneasily. It was nearly midnight, and the streets around them were dark. Ezio's phone rang, and he jumped about a foot in the air. "Unknown caller?"

"Probably some telemarketer," said Desmond.

"This late?" Ezio asked, and answered the call.

That was the only thing he said for the entirety of the one sided conversation that followed. For the next few minutes, Desmond watched Ezio's face cycle through surprise, confusion, and curiosity several times while he shifted around, impatiently waiting to hear what was going on. At one point, right at the end of the conversation, Ezio actually gave Desmond a 'can you believe this' look, which Desmond answered with a helpless shrug. Finally, Ezio hung up.

"Who was that?"

"Miles," said Ezio. "Did you give him my number?"

"No," said Desmond. "But I mean, it's not that hard to find out."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he could have gotten it from any of the dozens of girls you've given it to?" Desmond suggested. "What did he want?"

"Well he's apparently with my mother," said Ezio. "Back home." Ezio's mother had stayed behind when Ezio and his two siblings had been taken away by Desmond's father. Someone apparently needed to be around for the trials that were sure to follow.

"That's weird," Desmond pointed out.

"It's good though," Ezio insisted. "I told you, she didn't take the arrest well. We had to leave her behind-" a brief look of guilt crossed his face. "Until the police finish their questioning, at least. But I'm glad she's not alone."

"And you trust Miles to be there?"

Ezio nodded slowly. "I know there's technically no reason to trust him," he said. "But I do anyway."

"So that's what he called to talk to you about?" Desmond asked. "Your mom?"

"Sort of..."

"What does 'sort of' mean?" Desmond had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't going to like it.

"Okay." Ezio made a face. "So... Abstergo is in tight with the police."

"Which we already figured."

"Yea. But the point is, Abstergo are the ones that are holding my family."

Desmond stared at him. "Is that even legal?" he demanded.

"I don't know," he said. "But they're not getting out of there alive." His face was grave, but Desmond didn't have a chance to jump in with any reassurances- not that there were any words that could help. "I don't know if this is an assassin templar thing, but I'm not going to risk their lives betting it isn't. They don't have a chance of getting out of there unless we get them out."

"'We'," Desmond repeated.

"Well, Miles, mostly," Ezio corrected himself with a dismissive hand gesture. "But we're going to help."

"How?" Desmond demanded. "We don't know how to fight, or anything!"

"Hey." Ezio frowned. "You're missing the point. I can't _not _try. That's the point."

Desmond wavered, then caved. He understood the seriousness of what was happening. He believed that Ezio was right. There was no easy way out of this, and probably none that didn't involve violence. "Alright. What are we supposed to do?"

"Everyone's watching that one building where they're being held," Ezio said promptly. "Templars and assassins and who knows what else, just waiting to find out who's going to make their move first. So we need to draw them all away, while Miles goes and and gets my family past whatever security they have any there."

"And how are we going to get everyone away from the building?" Desmond asked.

Ezio smiled mysteriously. "We're going to Make Plans," he answered.

-/-

They were complicated plans, and they never would have worked if the two of them hadn't called in backup.

Desmond came up with the idea after another argument about Connor with his father that ended with Desmond storming away to his own room. "You'd think he was leading me to a life of crime or something, the way my dad keeps complaining," Desmond complained to Ezio later that evening.

"I could see that happening," Ezio said thoughtfully.

"But seriously," Desmond continued, ignoring Ezio. "I-" he stopped. "Hang on a minute."

"Why am I hanging on?"

Desmond rolled his eyes. "No seriously," he said. "We need a distraction, to get attention away from your family."

"Yea... Ezio said, clearly unsure where Desmond was going with this abrupt change of topic. "So? What does that have to do with Connor?"

"My parents _and _his dad flipped out because the two of us had a conversation," Desmond pointed out. "So here's what I'm thinking. You and me go meet up with Connor. We'll do it close to where your family is so that when my parents and Connor's dad freak out and try to get us as far away from each other as possible, they'll call in help instead of going all the way out to New York themselves. And you know who the people in the area will be?"

"No..?"

"The people that are supposed to be watching your family," said Desmond. "While they're distracted with us-"

"Miles flies in and saves the day!" Ezio said, making a wooshing sort of gesture, and smiling for the first time in a long while. "Except that's the weirdest plan I've ever heard and it's never going to work." The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"It's the best plan you've ever heard," Desmond argued. "It's so insane no one will even be suspicious. You're worried about your parents- of course you'd go visit them. I'm worried you're going to do something stupid, so of course I come with. Connor's pissed at his dad and when he hears we're going on a cross country road trip adventure of course he wants to come with."

"It still sounds crazy." But Ezio looked marginally less sceptical. "Just don't call it a 'cross country road trip adventure' again." Suddenly his frown deepened. "And where do we stay when we get to New York? I know you have a car, but it smells like cheese and I'm not spending any longer in it than I have to."

"My car doesn't smell like-"

"Yes. Yes it does."

They were quiet for a few minutes. Ezio was obviously trying to come up with someplace to stay while they were in New York (something that would have been a lot easier if they had more than $22.50 and a gift card to starbucks between them).

"Don't Tai and Mal live in New York?" Ezio asked eventually.

"What?" Desmond shrugged. "I don't know."

But Ezio was more certain now. "They do," he said. "Tai mentioned it once."

"Well okay then," said Desmond. "I think that's pretty much everything."

-/-

After coming up with those bare beginnings of a plan, it took nearly the entire rest of break to get the tiny details ironed out and then find enough gas money to make it all the way to New York. Connor proved difficult to contact as well. He'd warned Desmond not to call him until they were back at school, and Desmond and Ezio were both wary of how closely Connor's dad might be watching his phone or email.

In the end, Ezio called Leo who emailed Connor, since as far as anyone knew there wasn't a soul alive that actually disliked Leo. Tai and Mal were easy to convince, although Tai decided not to mention their arrival to anyone until it actually happened. It was much harder to turn someone away when they're already at your door.

They left early. It had snowed the night before, and there were a tense few minutes until Desmond brought the car out of the untouched neighborhood streets and onto the busier and already plowed main thoroughfares.

"Well, that was easy," said Ezio- not completely truthfully- when they finally hit the highway.

"Speak for yourself," said Desmond, who felt more tense than he would have liked to admit. He'd been wishing for the guts to just up and leave home in the middle of the night since he was sixteen, back when he'd first started fighting with his dad. Now he was actually doing, and it was as far from the circumstances he'd imagined as possible. Still, he tried to make light of it. "It's not that easy for me- I have to put up with you until we get to New York." He knew Ezio must be feeling worse than he was, and was relieved to see him smile.

They didn't say anything else for at least another two hours, during which Ezio managed to doze off (Desmond watched jealously- they'd left really early, and he hadn't slept much the night before). Around ten, the calls from Desmond's parents started to come in, along with texts that were first annoyed, then angry, then worried. Desmond ignored them all.

Ezio woke up around noon, and they got off the highway for gas and food. While they were on their way back into the car, Desmond's phone rang again. He ignored it.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Ezio asked.

"It's my parents again," said Desmond. "We're still too close to home. If I talk to them now, they might just come get us, and then there go all our plans."

"Right," said Ezio. Then- "Are you ever going to tell them?"

"Sure. I'll call them up when we're in New York and let them know where we are."

"Not just that. All of it."

"About- what? Miles, and other universes?" Desmond laughed. "No."

"Good." Ezio nodded.

"So you're not telling yours either?" That surprised Desmond. His own parental issues were complex and long reaching. Ezio actually seemed to like his, though.

"They'd never believe me anyway," said Ezio.

"They might," said Desmond. "With the right proof. They could talk to Miles, maybe, or-"

"Maybe it just doesn't feel right to tell them," Ezio interrupted. He looked uncomfortable. "I don't like lying to them, but I kind of feel like everything that's happening is supposed to be for us. Not for them. Like it's our story. Does that make sense?"

"No," said Desmond. "Now get in the car- it's your turn to drive."

-/-

At last, they made it to New york. Ezio's dad and older brother were being held about ten miles from where Tai and Mal lived, which- much to Desmond's disappointment, was not in the city itself.

"So... we come all the way out here and we don't even get to see the city," Desmond complained. "I've wanted to see New York my whole life, and what do I get? New York _state_."

"Maybe someday..." Ezio said absentmindedly. He was busy looking at a map.

"It's upside down," Desmond said, glancing over.

"Oh."

"How far away are we?"

"About three inches," said Ezio. At Desmond's slightly panicked look (they'd been lost three times already), he added "I'm kidding. Three inches on the map, so- just like fifteen minutes. Turn left up here."

-/-

Instead of going straight to anyone's house, they met with Tai, Mal, and Connor in a strip mall close to where Tai and Mal lived. This part was according to plan. The part that was not according to plan was where Mal brought his little brother along.

"It was either bring him or I don't come at all," Mal said before anyone could say anything. "I have to take him to soccer practice in half an hour."

"Is he going to tell people about this?" Connor asked.

"'He's' standing right here," said Kay, glancing up from his phone. "And I don't really care what you're talking about."

"Okay then," said Ezio. He switched gears, apparently satisfied by Kay's answer. "Miles is here already, right?"

"Yea," said Mal. "he stopped by the other night."

"Was that the guy that climbed in through the window?" Kay interrupted.

"I thought you weren't listening," said Mal.

"I'm not."

"Clearly." He snorted and turned to the rest of the group. "But yea. That was him."

"Well then I guess that's everything." Desmond pulled out his phone and tapped it nervously against his palm. "Now we just have to let our parents know." He met Connor's eye and saw that his friend looked just as worried as he felt.

"Wait," Kay interrupted. "I don't get it."

"Good," said Mal.

"So you guys-" he pointed to Connor, Ezio, and Desmond. "Are all running away and now you want to get busted for it?"

"Yes," said Connor.

Kay shook his head. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but don't you think just calling your parents and being like 'hey, here we are, come and get us' is a little... obvious?"

"How old are you?" Ezio asked. "Like, twelve?"

"Sixteen," said Kay, his tone one of injured pride.

"He does have a point though," Desmond muttered.

"I have an idea though!" Kay added.

"What-"

"Smile!" he'd whipped out his own phone and snapped a picture of the group before anyone had a chance to protest.

"What was that for?" Connor demanded.

"I'm gonna put it on facebook," Kay explained, already thumbing away at his phone's screen.. "And then I'm gonna tag everyone in it, because as every teacher I've ever had has told me, once it's on the internet anyone can see it. If people are looking for you, they'll find the picture." He put his phone away and grinned. "You're welcome."

Tai nodded. "Good idea."

Kay shrugged, apparently trying to make it seem like no big deal while simultaneously beaming at the compliment. Desmond tried to hide a laugh at the blatant hero worship, turning it into a cough at the last second.

"So now we wait," Connor said. "For someone to notice."

-/-

They spent nearly four hours at that strip mall, just waiting for something to happen. Mal left to take Kay to soccer practice, came back, and spent a while arguing with Ezio about whether soccer in January was pointless.

"It's too cold for soccer."

"It's indoors."

Ezio rolled his eyes. "It still sounds stupid."

"Says the guy who runs at the sight of a clarinet," Mal said. To which Ezio could make no reply. Not long after that- and with everyone's parents still unresponsive, Mal went back to pick Kay up. It wasn't until after the two of them got back that anything happened.

And, of all people, it was Miles that showed up first. He just walked in on the group while they were in a dollar store, having pretty much run out of good places to kill time by then.

"What's the matter?" Ezio asked before anyone else had a chance to say so much as hello. "Did something go wrong?"

Miles gave a very long, tired sigh. "Yes and no," he said. "I got your family out. Your... distraction worked."

"Thank God," Ezio breathed, and Desmond watched as his expression collapsed into one of relief. "We were wondering, because we didn't hear from anyone..."

"But...?" Tai prompted.

"But..." Miles seemed to be picking his words carefully. "When Haytham Kenway learned that his son had run off to new York, and was last seen with members of four old assassin families-"

"Wait," Tai added. "Four? That makes our parents assassins as well." He gestured at himself and Mal.

"Yea," Miles said.

"Huh."

"Assassins?" Kay piped up. Miles glanced over at him, then did a double take. Clearly he hadn't noticed Kay before. And maybe that was the only reason that- just for a second- Miles looked monumentally surprised to see him there. Maybe, but Desmond doubted it. He didn't just look surprised. He looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"It's a long story," said Mal.

"Sounds cool," Kay insisted, a hair too loudly.

Tai glanced at him. "Seriously, Kay," he said. "Not now."

Kay nodded, eyes wide, and lapsed into silence.

"Alright then," said Tai to Miles. "What's going on?"

"Short version?" Miles shrugged. "The templars are using this as an excuse to launch a full out assault on New York's assassins."

"Shit," Connor swore, which pretty much summed it up.

"This is our fault?" Desmond asked quietly. He still wasn't one hundred per cent sure on where exactly he stood on the whole assassin issue, but to see them wiped out..? And weren't his parents supposed to be coming up?

"What can we do to help?" Tai asked.

Miles ran a hand through his close cut hair. "There's not much," he said bluntly. "And it's going to be dangerous. You shouldn't volunteer to help unless you really want to."

Tai didn't even blink. "I don't want to," he said. "But that doesn't mean I won't."

"Fine," said Miles. "There is something," he said. "The templars have control of some of the street gangs in new York City. They use them sometimes when they have dirty little jobs they can't be associated with. If those gangs get pulled into the fight... well, I'm not really sure what will happen. All the information I have on this world I learned... second hand."

"What?"

"Mostly by spying and hacking."

"Fair enough."

"But whatever happens," Miles picked up, "It's not going to be good. They have drop spots, underground mostly, that they use to communicate with the templars. Not... _too _heavily guarded. I can tell you where to go. You take them out."

"And where are you going to be?" Connor demanded.

"Everywhere," Miles said. He seemed ragged already. "Oh, and Mal-" his face flickered with some unknown emotion. "Take your brother home."

**-/-**

**And this chapter is long and ridiculous.**


	9. Christmas Part III

"We don't have time to get him home," Tai insisted.

Miles had left, and the rest of them were headed into the city, toward the location of the first drop point.

"How do you know how much time we have?" Mal demanded.

"What if we miss our chance and a message comes through while we're taking care of him?" Tai asked. "Besides, you know it always takes twice as long to get into the city when you're in a hurry. We definitely don't have time to play taxi."

"And I wanna help!" Kay piped up.

"Do you even know what's going on?" Connor asked, more curious than upset.

"No..." Kay muttered.

"Well, we don't have time to take him back and we don't have time to explain," Tai said. "Let's go."

-/-

They split up as they reached the area of the city where the drop zones were mostly clustered. Desmond, Ezio, and Connor headed off in one direction while Tai led Mal and Kay off in another. The first group found the drop zone surprisingly quickly and inside ten minutes had managed to destroy the transmitter there.

"So... when they find out the transmitter down, won't they just... I don't know, call?" Ezio asked after they were done.

"If phones were an option they wouldn't need these things in the first place," Connor pointed out. "These are way more secure than any kind of phone. My dad works with them," he added, when Desmond gave him a 'how do you know that' look.

"So we get rid of these and we're good," Ezio said, nodding. "Okay, I can be good with that." But he was frowning, and Desmond wondered how responsible his friend felt for what was going to happen between the assassins and templars in New York- all this had started over his family, after all.

"Yea," he said, a little awkwardly. "So let's go get the next one."

In the end, they managed to get to three transmitter sites after the first one. Transmitter number two almost ended in disaster when they ran into a pair of thugs apparently coming to check on the same transmitter they'd come to disable.

Luckily they were unarmed and more surprised to see Desmond, Connor, and Ezio than they were to see the thugs, and more by luck than any kind of skill managed to get the better of the two.

The next bomb went as smoothly as the first, but the fourth and final one went horribly, horribly wrong.

It didn't start out badly. They found the transmitter, kicked it in, and were on their way back out when Desmond heard a soft footstep behind them. He spun around to see- his heart sank at the sight- Connor's dad, no more than five feet behind them, having apparently come in through a different way. He examined all three of them with an air of deep disappointment.

The other two still hadn't noticed, so Desmond hissed "Guys!" and the two of them turned to see what he was looking at.

"Dad!" Connor said, and Desmond could hear surprise warring with panic in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Communication problems," Haytham said, indicating the kicked in remains on the ground between them. "Now I know what happened, at least."

"Dad, I-"

"What do you think you're doing?" Haytham demanded before Connor could finish. "Do you have any idea what the stakes are here?"

"No!" Connor nearly shouted. "Why don't you tell me, dad? Tell me what could possibly justify the things you've done for Abstergo? For the templars?"

Haytham glanced at Desmond and Ezio for the briefest of moments before his eyes flicked back to Connor. "They've been filling your head with lies," he said, in a voice of deadly calm.

"I went in your office," said Connor. "I found your files. I read them, and I made my own judgments. Abstergo has started wars, thrown down governments, killed innocents, done whatever twisted things they want just to gain power."

"And you really think the assassins are any better?" Haytham demanded. He strode toward the three of them, until he stood less than a foot away from his son. Connor went stiff but did not move.

"I have no idea," said Connor. "But no matter what it turns out _they've _been doing, it can't justify your actions."

He stared defiantly at Haytham, who glared back, neither willing to back down.

Then, just when he was starting to wonder if maybe he should do something, Connor said- "Run."

"Wha-"

Connor whipped around and pushed the other two, and after a few feet of stumbling and trying not to fall over, all three were running, and Desmond had no time to think about anything besides putting as much disance between the three of them and Haytham as possible.

It wasn't easy. Haytham knew the area, and he was in surprisingly good shape for his age. Still, Desmond, Connor, and Ezio managed o keep ahead of him- at least until they rounded a corner and came smack up against a dead end.

"Shit!" Ezio panted. And there was Haytham, behind them still but coming closer with every second, an expression of fierce determination on his face. At that moment, Desmond knew there was no hope.

And that was when the ghost appeared, stepping out of thin air to intercept the older Kenway. It seemed insubstantial- Desmond could clearly see right through the spector to the wall on his other side- but when he held his hand out to grab Haytham's shoulder, he was able to pull him to a stop.

Desmond glanced around- everyone else looked as startled as he felt. Everyone except the ghost, who mostly looked angry. And... familiar. In the scarce few moments before everyone managed to get over their surprise, Desmond studied the ghost. He wore a long coat, white with blue. Brown boots and a red belt. The metallic glint of weapons peeked from every place that one could conceivably put a weaopn- Desmond spotted knives, guns, and what looked like a tomahawk.

But what he really noticed was the ghost's face. It was unmistakably Connor's.

And then the moment ended, as both Haytham and the ghost moved. Nearly at the same moment, the ghost reached out (Desmond heard a click of metal, and saw blades seemingly slide out of the ghost's hands), and Haytham dodged away. And that was the last bit of the fight Desmond could see clearly. They both just moved like- Desmond had no words for it. Like water. Like wind. Like fire. It was mesmorizing.

"Come on," Desmond turned to find Connor at his shoulder, face set in an expression of grim determination.

"But that's- you- and-"

"I know. Come on. Before..." he hesitated. "Either of them notices."

"Fine," said Desmond.

Connor nodded, and called back over his shoulder- "Ezio, come on."

"I'm coming!"

And they made their escape.

-/-

That was the last of the transmitters in their area- the others had the rest. So, when they reached a place that looked crowded and brightly lit and safe, they stopped to talk it over.

"What was that?" The words burst from Ezio forcefully enough to make several people around them look over at the group. "I mean, did you see that?"

"It was Connor," said Desmond.

"How is that even possible?" Ezio demanded.

Desmond shrugged, surprised how unsurprised he felt. "It's not like it would be the first person from another universe we've met."

"But he was a ghost," Ezio protested.

"Could be dead," said Connor slowly. "I mean, people don't wear clothes like that anymore. If we're counting on multiple universes now, maybe time travel is also on the table?"

They were quiet for a long time after that. Desmond felt incredibly tired, and at the same time as hyped up as if he'd downed a dozen cups of coffee. No one mentioned leaving, but there was clearly no question that they would have to move soon. Anyone could find them. Anything.

"Desmond."

Desmond blinked and suddenly there was his dad, falling smoothly into step beside them. He looked worn out and grim. "Dad!" Somehow, _this _surprised him. "What are you doing here?"

William didn't answer. Instead, he said, "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Started a war, apparently," Connor muttered.

William's mouth tightened into a thin line. "And I'm going to want to hear exactly why you did that," he said. Desmond shifted uncomfortably. This was going to be a less than fun conversation. Probably worse than the time he was learning to drive and killed the neighbor's cat. And their mailbox. William was still talking. "But first we need to go to the hospital."

"The hospital?" Desmond repeated. "Did something happen? Is- did someone get hurt?"

"Yes."

"Who?" Ezio asked, his family still clearly on his mind.

"Just come and see."

-/-

It was Mal they went to see. When William led Desmond, Connor, and Ezio into the waiting room near the intensive care unit, they found Tai already waiting there, as well as half a dozen people Desmond didn't recognize. Ezio's two brothers and his sister were there as well.

The rest of the room was empty, and Desmond wondered if they'd been driven away, or if it was just coincidence no one else wanted to use the room.

Ezio broke the silence first. "What's going on?" he asked. "What happened to Mal? And where's Kay?"

"Mal's in surgery," said Tai. "And Kay..." he trailed off, rubbing tiredly at his face. "He's dead."

No one said anything- Desmond took an unconscious step back. Kay- dead? It was impossible. He'd seen the kid a few hours ago. He'd only _met _him that same morning.

William spoke into the silence that followed. "For thousands of years, the templars and assassins have been at war. Kings and countries have fallen, but still our two groups have fought. And into this, the six of you just come stumbling in, disrupting everything, falling into a life that none of us-" he gestured around at the others in the room- "wanted for any of you." From that, Desmond guessed the strangers must be the parents of his friends. William's eyes locked onto Desmond's. "What I want to know is how that happened."

Desmond very badly wanted to hear what had happened to Mal and Kay, but the look on William's face told him quite clearly that he wasn't getting any more details until he told his part of the story.

So he explained about Miles, in the simplest terms possible. He didn't mention the stuff about alternate universes or any of the other crazy bits of Miles's story. He'd seen enough to be convinced, by that point, and he was pretty sure his friends felt the same. Something told him his dad wouldn't have the same reaction, though. And anyway, it was easier to be vague, and Desmond was eager to get the story over with as quickly as possible.

He also left out the ghost that had appeared from nowhere to stop Haytham Kenway. He wasn't even quite sure what to think of that, there was no way he was sharing with his parents.

When he had finally finished, William sighed and shook his head. "I wish you'd just come and talked to one of us about this," he said. "I can't fault you for what you tried to do, but you still acted without the necessary experience or information, and..."

He trailed off, not needing to restate the consequences. Still, Desmond had to know how it had happened, so he said, "What exactly went wrong?"

"It was my fault," Tai said, not quite looking at any of them. "Mal wanted to take Kay home, but I kept saying we didn't have time. So we went to find the transmitters, and the first few went okay. But when we got to the last one, there was a whole group of people already there. They had guns and knives and-" he took a deep breath. "And anyway, they chased us underground. The building was connected to- I guess it was some unfinished part of the subway, or something. The whole place was ancient and falling apart, and part of the roof came down. I ran, and when I got out, I realized Mal and Kay were gone."

"We got there a little later," William added. "And went in to find them."

"Kay was already dead," said Tai in a voice so quiet Desmond could barely hear it.

"What about Mal?" Ezio asked.

"He's going to lose an arm, according to the doctors," said William. "But he's lucky. He'll survive."

"So what do we do now?" Ezio asked.

"Now, you make a choice," said William. "You can walk away from all this. Right now. It's not too late. You're not in too deep. You can still have a normal life. Or, you can join us. The life of an assassin isn't easy, and it isn't safe. But I think you know by now what the templars will do to the world if they win this war. I think you know why we need to keep fighting."

"A choice?" Tai shook his head. "Kay's dead and Mal-" he turned away, and when he looked back at the group, his face was set. "I think we _are _in too deep."

"I have nowhere else to go anyway," said Connor flatly. "Even if my dad would take me, there's no way I could just go back. Pretend that nothing happened."

"We've all seen what they can do," said Ezio, glancing at his father, who had stood silently by through the conversation.

Desmond nodded and looked his own father straight in the eye. "Is that enough of an answer for you?"

**-/-**

**...I would like to heartily apologize for the fact that I'm going to cut this story short. It's a combination of too many credit hours, another plot bunny that's biting me, and the fact that the twenty four pages of this I had written were _crap_. So, since this was the last chapter where anything decent happened, and there was at least some sort of emotional tying up (if not plotwise), I decided to cut it off here, rather than have several more boring chapters that would only drag what I had already down. So for now, and until and unless I get more inspiration... this is it for this story. Again, many apologies for anyone that happens to be reading this.**


End file.
